Some of my friends call me the coupon queen because I love using coupons when I make purchases. Why not save 20% or an extra $1? It all adds up in the end. For every bride I work with, there is a budget. Budgets are as low as $10,000 or can be as high as a couple can (or cannot) afford. No matter what the budget, a couple with a $10,000 budget should still be able to have as beautiful of a wedding as a couple with an unlimited budget.

Earlier this week, I shared caterbid.com with you. Then there was the time saving tool for preparing your seating chart for your reception. Although it may not have saved money, it did save time and time is money. 🙂

One of the categories for a wedding budget is a gift for each person in the bridal party. Although these aren’t required, it is a way to show your appreciation. This is where couples can get into trouble because they usually want to have personalized gifts that have meaning. The problem? It can be expensive! My advice? Wait for a great sale. Sure you could be pushing it to the last minute but who says you can’t give the gift after the wedding? (*shock*) Seriously, you have enough things to worry about and your bridal party should understand that you may not have had time to do some shopping. Besides, should your bridal party be expecting a gift anyway?!

www.weddingchicks.com is having a 50% off sale in their shop if you use discount code unclesam. If you spend $100 or more, you get FREE shipping! Double deals! Love it when this happens!

www.etsy.com is a great way to get unique handmade gifts for your bridesmaids, especially since they all have different personalities. And you know what? If you contact the owners of the etsy shops that you like, they may be able to give you a discount if you order more than one thing from their shop. It doesn’t hurt to ask! Worse thing that could happen is that they say “no, I can’t do that”. I’ve gotten many deals working with these owners.

Clutches by Oatmeal Lace Designs

Although this isn’t directly related to bridal party gifts, another way to save money is to see if vendors are available last minute. Yes, that can be stressful but let me give you an example. Let’s say you want a photo booth at your wedding but you don’t have $1,500 in your budget to pay for a photo booth. Why not wait until closer to your wedding date and see if the vendor has a booth available at a discounted rate. A lot of times vendors who have these type of items want to rent it out rather than have it sit in storage. They could potentially give you MAJOR savings! Again, ask and the worse that could happen is they say “no, sorry”.

One more tip and then I’m done. Consider not having champagne at your wedding. Most guests use whatever glass with whatever liquid to lift for the toast. This could save money and save a lot of waste!

Of course, I’m not advocating for you to wait until the last minute to do your planning…only do this if it’s a “nice to have” item. 🙂